Moors Driven Out of Spain

On January 2, 1492, the city of Granada surrendered to the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile. Granada was the capital of the last Muslim-ruled kingdom on the Iberian Peninsula, the Nasrid Emirate, and its fall marked the culmination of the centuries-long Christian Reconquista that had gradually pushed Muslim political power southward.

The conquest followed a prolonged war against Granada waged by the united crowns of Castile and Aragon. After a lengthy siege, the city's ruler, Boabdil (Muhammad XII), agreed to surrender the city under terms that initially promised protection for the religious freedom and property of its Muslim inhabitants. The triumphant entry of the Catholic Monarchs ended nearly eight centuries of Muslim political presence in Spain.

The fall of Granada had far-reaching consequences. It completed the political unification of Christian Spain under Ferdinand and Isabella and freed resources and attention that helped make possible the sponsorship of Christopher Columbus's voyage later that same year. The promises of toleration were soon eroded, leading over the following decades to forced conversions and ultimately the expulsion of Muslims and Jews, profoundly reshaping Spanish society.